Omarion Biography

Singer

Name at birth: Omari Grandberry

Omarion's debut solo album, O, zoomed to #1 on the Billboard charts in its first week of release in 2005. He'd been on the charts before -- as the lead singer of the soulful boy band B2K. That band broke up late in 2003, and just over a year later Omarion returned with O. As a solo crooner, Omarion proved to be a buffed-up loverboy of the Usher school; tunes on O included "I Wish," "Growing Pains" and "Never Gonna Let You Go" (a duet with Big Boi of Outkast). Omarion also dabbled in acting with roles in the 2004 movies You Got Served, Fat Albert and Feel the Noise (2007, produced by Jennifer Lopez). His autobiography, also titled O, was published in 2005, and his second musical release, 21 (2007) debuted at no. 1 and included the hits "Entourage" and "Ice Box." Omarion teamed with Bow Wow for the 2007 release Face Off, then began work on a third solo album for 2009.

Extra credit: Omarion's fellow singers in B2K were Raz-B, Lil Fizz and J-Boog.

R&B crooners of an earlier era included Luther Vandross and Barry White.